Gerald May on Addictions and Grace
Gerald May was a renowned psychiatrist who become even more acclaimed as a teacher of spirituality. In his many books, especially, Addiction and Grace, May offers truly magnificent insights into the interplay of addiction and God’s saving grace. The following eight reflections offer an introduction into May’s important message. Some insights from Carmelite spirituality give added support to May’s teachings.
We are made to be one with God. Everything else in life including death will pass away. In the end, we will be one with God or separate from God which is hell. That is our rock bottom reality. It will not change.Gerald May was a renowned psychiatrist who become even more acclaimed as a teacher of spirituality. In his many books, especially, Addiction and Grace, May offers truly magnificent insights into the interplay of addiction and God’s saving grace. The following eight reflections offer an introduction into May’s important message. Some insights from Carmelite spirituality give added support to May’s teachings.
We all develop plans to achieve our happiness which ultimately is to be in love with a love that is complete and eternal. We have an emptiness that propels us to love, to be loved and move toward the Source of love. God created us with this desire. This is what St. Augustine meant then he said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.
While we have a plan to satisfy our heart’s longing, this plan will change countless times over our lifetime. God also has a plan for us and it never changes. God wants us to be caught up in the fullness of love for eternity. The spiritual life is an evolving scheme with both its dreams and confusion trying to grasp God’s plan.
While God is patient with us in the extreme, the divine plan for our true destiny will never change. We are called to be one with God, more accurately stated, to realize the already existing union with God. That demands a process of purification and transformation. Teresa of Avila put it this way: we are going to experience purgatory. The choice is ours. It will be in this life or the next.
Jesus’ life and teachings are the surest roadmap for us. Jesus offers a way free of distortion, blindness and idolatry. He teaches us to see all things, all relationships, all desires as a means to steer us into the mystery of God. Of course, our fragmented heart repels everything about Jesus’ gospel message. This battle of sin and grace will carry on to the moment of our death.
In his classic, Addiction and Grace, Gerald May addresses the role of addiction and our spiritual welfare. May defines addiction as any compulsive, habitual behavior that limits freedom and human desire. An addictive action flows from a strong attachment. It is either physical or in our mind. Whether it is our favorite TV show or pornography, gambling or our food’s preparation, quantity or variety, our commitment to our favorite team or an aversion to a particular race or sexual orientation, all addictions produce a negative power within us that varies in degree. Likewise, addictions are not limited to concrete things. The urge to be in control, intimacy, popularity, and having the last word are just a few examples of the depth and breadth of our addictions operative in the mind. The truly negative power of our addictions fills the space in our heart meant for God.
Addictions enlighten this fundamental struggle of the human heart. Addiction is a process where creatures are either an obstacle in our search for God or a straight-out replacement for God in idolatry. Sin finds a comfortable home in our addictions. Addictions are a force within us that devastate our freedom. Most often they lead us to do what we really do not want to do. We slowly slide into the captive power of their compulsion.
One of the most deceptive elements of addictions is that they devour desire. Thus, they direct our energy away from others and God and feed our selfishness. Love for God and neighbor is always weakened because of our addictions. Addiction sucks up energy from many of life’s meaningful projects and the most meaningful, the pursuit of God.
Generally, when we think of addiction, we picture the alcoholic or drug addict or even the gambler that is out of control. Almost always, it is the other person, not us, who is addicted. The reality is we all suffer from multiple addictions that can span the entire range of human activity. Though they may vary in their intensity, they all are destructive because they impede our freedom. They direct our love toward ourselves and away from our neighbor and God.
It is our freedom that allows us to pursue our true final destiny in the hunt for God. Addictions are a cancer constantly diminishing our precious freedom. Big or small, a minimal hindrance or a true blockage, hidden or in the open, all addictions are bad. While some addictions are relatively easy to eliminate, many more involve the battle of a lifetime.
Addictions are as old as the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Like the apple, addictions promise freedom and happiness. They produce slavery and destruction. The solution is self-knowledge that recognizes our dependence on God and our acceptance of God’s call to freedom in love and grace. It is not our naked willpower that holds the key to freedom but our openness to God’s grace. It is not our determination but a combination of our effort nurtured by God’s grace that will set us free. Grace transcends all power in the universe. It is where we find hope.
The following reflections will delve into this mysterious the nature of addictions and the relationship of grace and addiction.
